Culdees

Culdees [Irish,=servants of God], ancient monks of Ireland and Scotland, appearing after the 8th cent. Little is known of their origin, and their relationship to the monks of the Celtic Church, e.g., at Iona, is unclear. They were originally anchorites, but by the time of the reforms of St. Malachy (12th cent.) they had become secular canons living in community. They gained a reputation for extreme laxness. The last Culdee community, at Armagh, was disbanded in 1541.

Culdee. The name, meaning ‘companion of God’, was used:

1. in the 8th and 9th cents. of Irish monks who sought a life of stricter devotion in certain churches;

2. later of clergy forming the cathedral establishment at some churches in Ireland and Scotland before they were replaced by canons regular in or after the 12th cent.;

3. by the 16th cent. in a debased sense of any monks of Celtic observance.

Culdee an Irish or Scottish monk of the 8th to 12th centuries, living as a recluse usually in a group of thirteen (on the analogy of Christ and his Apostles). The tradition ceased as the Celtic Church was brought under Roman Catholic rule.

The name is recorded from late Middle English, and comes from medieval Latin culdeus, alteration, influenced by Latin cultores Dei ‘worshippers of God’ of kelledei (plural, found in early Scottish records), from Old Irish céle dé, literally ‘companion of God’.